A + B + C = ? (Green Edition)

[Chouffleur]

I have a fairly limited experience of inks (61) so I thought I'd try this idea from back in my searching-for-new-authors days. I would go into a book store and ask who they'd recommend based on three authors I liked.

 

I'd like to try a new green ink.

 

Three greens I like:

 

Levenger Gemstone Green

 

Iroshizuku Syo-Ro

 

De Atramentis Petrol

 

Your recommendation?

[landrover]

MB Irish Green.

[lapis]

CdA's Amazon (long gone), Stipula's Verte Muschiato (Musk Green), De Atramentis' Jane Austen, Omas' Green, Seitz-Kreuznach's Tundra Green....

 

... and if you haven't already, check out this great list....

[ddntp]

Similar colors for three mentioned:

 

Diamine Music Collection Schubert
Diamine Aurora Borealis
Lamy Amazonite

Monteverde California Teal

Waterman Harmonious Green

[dan in montreal]

Similar colors for three mentioned:

 

Diamine Music Collection Schubert

Diamine Aurora Borealis

Lamy Amazonite

Monteverde California Teal

Waterman Harmonious Green

+1: California Teal is the first one that came to my mind.

[A Smug Dill]

Your recommendation?

 

... is to look here: http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/279433-inky-t-o-d-color-swatches-green-please-post-your-pictures-and-tell-us-your-thoughts/

[Chouffleur]

 

... is to look here: http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/279433-inky-t-o-d-color-swatches-green-please-post-your-pictures-and-tell-us-your-thoughts/

When I ask "Given what I like (3 examples), what would you recommend as a new flower to buy?" I'm expecting an answer like "Gladiolus" not "The Kew Book of Botanical Illustration" ;-)

 

... but hey, *really* liked the SARS to SORC volume of the Encyclopedia Brittanica.

[dennis_f]

I went over to Mountain of Ink to see if she had done a review of Syo-ro. I don't know if you're familiar with that site, but she often compares the ink to others that look similar.

 

Sure enough, she had 7 close matches:

 

Iroshizuku Ku-Jaku

Diamine Music Schubert

Sailor Ink Studio 664

Sailor Jentle Yama Dori

Ferris Wheel Press Bluegrass Velvet

Monteverde Iced Cookie

Pelikan Edelstein Aquamarine.

 

You can check out the comparison swatches here: https://www.mountainofink.com/blog/pilot-iroshizuku-syo-ro

 

Maybe those are too similar... but they might give you a starting point: click on some of the comparison swatches and they might take you to equally similar but different colours in the same range.

[A Smug Dill]

I would go into a book store and ask who they'd recommend based on three authors I liked.

 

I'd like to try a new green ink.

When I ask "Given what I like (3 examples), what would you recommend as a new flower to buy?" I'm expecting an answer like "Gladiolus" not "The Kew Book of Botanical Illustration" ;-)

 

... but hey, *really* liked the SARS to SORC volume of the Encyclopedia Brittanica.

 

 

The primary differences, or way in which your analogy and/or approach towards book-buying, are:

• We don't have any ink to sell you, and it doesn't matter materially to us which ink you end up buying from whom. No skin off our noses, and no money in our pockets.
• You're focussing on liking, which need not be entirely rational (and that's perfectly OK). It makes no sense for anyone to spend time trying to guess at what's in common about those inks (other than being green) that you like, do some baseless analysis, and make recommendations. You didn't ask about technical aspects, or even price and quality.
• You didn't specify or ask about any technical characteristics of inks, so our experience — which is the bit you don't personally have — with actually using particular inks and discovering their shortcomings is irrelevant.
• You're the sole authority on what you like, and irrespective of whether you determine that consciously or unconsciously, by rational selection criteria or just gut feel. You know which inks you like when you see it — at least until you discover other characteristics about them that may change your feelings later — so the best way to do that is simply to expose you to many samples of different green inks visually, and let you make the paring down and final selection however you want. You can make the selection much more accurately and quickly than anyone else could sorting through the same number of inks by some unspecified/non-specific criteria, and it's not really about reducing the amount of time you need to spend by delegating the task to fellow hobbyists, is it?
• If doesn't matter how much time you have, or what is your capacity to process a large amount of data. You can take as long as you want to review the samples and swatches already posted, and make as much (or as little) effort as you want and feel is commensurate with the importance of your quest.
• I didn't recommend or direct you to look at all green inks on the market. That Inky T O D thread is already a filter in that only those inks for which fellow members (who have used/tried the inks), and thought it worthwhile to post writing samples and/or swatches of such, are presented for selection. PenBBS inks, which are cheap and easily available in China but not anywhere else, are probably already filtered out by that criterion irrespective of whether you might actually like a particular 'unobtanium' green ink of that brand.

Edited August 4, 2020 by A Smug Dill

[Arkanabar]

IMHO .... +1 on everything Dill has said here.

 

After all, I rarely recommend a pen without some idea of what sorts of preferences the person I'm making a recommendation for has. When I respond to those "What pen should I get?" threads, I typically ask, "What do you like with regards to length, girth, weight, balance, filling system, nib, materials, etc?" And if their response is "I dunno," I tell them to try some out, making sure that they use a given pen long enough to be sure of what they do and don't like about it before moving on to the next one.

[dan in montreal]

For what it's worth, I actually like the original question and approach. It's just ink. You can go through an exhaustive comparative analysis of a myriad of brands, colors, properties and the like and spend countless hours doing that. However, there are so many variables (pen / nib / paper / individual writing style) I tend to see this as a tedious and futile exercise. It somewhat takes the fun out of the hobby as far as I'm concerned. And I'd rather be writing.

Chouffleur asked for suggestions based on inks he enjoys - I'm sure he is banking on the fact contributors to this forum with knowledge of these inks will be able to provide some ideas. It's not as if he were asking a pastry chef or a bartender.

[A Smug Dill]

However, there are so many variables (pen / nib / paper / individual writing style) I tend to see this as a tedious and futile exercise. It somewhat takes the fun out of the hobby as far as I'm concerned. And I'd rather be writing.

 

Due diligence can be tedious. I thought that's the point of diving straight into trying something new, instead of looking some sort of assurance that the outcome will be favourable and the investment (of time, effort, funds, etc.) proves worthwhile; it's about discovery, no? There's a difference between finding yet another commercial ink or shade of green the O.P. likes, and "please put your thinking caps on for me, do some looking around (inside your own experiences, or maybe on the World Wide Web) for me, so that what I pay next for ink and time spent writing with it will, with a high degree of likelihood, be subjectively enjoyable for me."

 

Trying could mean buying two, or five, or five dozen inks — and then spending time writing with them — and discovering that the original three inks nominated by the O.P. still best suit his tastes. Or it may result in his opening up new horizons, and end up with new favourites or just a wider range of colours he likes. We're not trying to pre-empt the outcome.

 

I believe in fuzzy logic and pattern recognition. He hasn't spelled out his logic or criteria for subjective liking, but simply named a small number of examples that are, at best, prototypes from a highly constrained solution space (i.e. what he has seen) and not a composite archetype of what he likes.

 

I have a fairly limited experience of inks (61) ...

So a time-efficient approach — not necessarily for him personally, but in terms of collective investment by everyone potentially involved, because he doesn't get to delegate the processing to anyone else — is to quickly expand the solution space (i.e. go scroll through the Inky TOD thread looking at the images) and apply pattern recognition for subjective liking, which only he can do, to select the next candidates for trying (as opposed to research or studying).

 

I'd like to try a new green ink.

_...‹snip›...

Your recommendation?

And I'd rather be writing.

 

Thus, that is my recommendation. I didn't suggest that he perform any comparative analysis. Just pick something based on "gut feel" or immediate internal response based on unspecified pattern recognition "logic", then spend money to acquire samples and/or bottles, and get writing immediately — irrespective of whether he'll enjoy every new ink colour he "tries" or like the writing outcome on the page.

 

It's not as if he were asking a pastry chef or a bartender.

 

As I was telling my wife about this thread last night, I explained it thus: "It's akin to walking into a knock shop and asking fellow customers for recommendations. Just look at the line-up of available ladies (or fellas) at the time, and pick one based on 'chemistry' or 'gut(?) feel' already, then spend a half-hour with one's pick. A good time isn't guaranteed, but then one doesn't have to be a repeat customer. It's not as if one is picking a mail-order spouse to whom one has to make a significant commitment."

[Runnin_Ute]

KWZI Pine Green

 

Edelstein Olivine and Aventurine

(Olivine being the 2018 Ink of the Year I don't know how available it is currently), Aventurine is part of the regular Edelstein line.

 

Levenger Forest Green shades nicely and isn't too dark or too bright.

 

Blackstone Daintree Green is a nice color too.

 

Five inks from four countries on three continents. Poland, Germany, USA and Australia.

Edited August 5, 2020 by Runnin_Ute

[Chouffleur]

I went over to Mountain of Ink to see if she had done a review of Syo-ro. I don't know if you're familiar with that site, but she often compares the ink to others that look similar.

 

Sure enough, she had 7 close matches:

 

Iroshizuku Ku-Jaku

Diamine Music Schubert

Sailor Ink Studio 664

Sailor Jentle Yama Dori

Ferris Wheel Press Bluegrass Velvet

Monteverde Iced Cookie

Pelikan Edelstein Aquamarine.

 

You can check out the comparison swatches here: https://www.mountainofink.com/blog/pilot-iroshizuku-syo-ro

 

Maybe those are too similar... but they might give you a starting point: click on some of the comparison swatches and they might take you to equally similar but different colours in the same range.

Thank you. I've bookmarked the site as it looks quite helpful.

 

As a follow-up, does anyone else you trust follow this idea (other inks suggested by this ink)?

[dennis_f]

Thank you. I've bookmarked the site as it looks quite helpful.

 

 

 

No problem. I've used the site quite often, but sometimes you have to be careful -- for example, I only buy samples if I'm not sure whether or not I'll like the suggested colour -- because slight differences in your monitor setting can lead to the suggested colour being incredibly different in real life.

 

 

 

As a follow-up, does anyone else you trust follow this idea (other inks suggested by this ink)?

 

 

If I understand your question correctly, and you mean is there anyone else online that makes similar comparisons, I don't believe there is, at least not with the same consistency as Mountain of Ink. By which I mean, she always makes a comparison between inks a feature of her reviews, whereas many other reviewers don't do that regularly.

 

I've had luck with Aziza's reviews at gourmetpens.com; which is to say, when she publishes images and comparisons they usually look the same to me in person as they do on my screen.

 

I think that ultimately, the real issue with asking for suggestions is that everyone sees colours a little differently, and when we users are parsing the differences between inks that resemble each other very very closely, those little differences can make a huge difference. For example, I like red-leaning blues, and dislike green-leaning ones. So when I ask people I trust to suggest inks to me (as I've been doing for a few months now, in my hunt for a perfect light blue), I have to discard more than half of their suggestions right off the bat, because what little green I see there turns me off immediately. I think the best we can do with asking for suggestions is narrowing down a list of possibilities, and then sampling the ones that strike us as possibilities.

[Jarod]

I like red-leaning blues, and dislike green-leaning ones. So when I ask people I trust to suggest inks to me (as I've been doing for a few months now, in my hunt for a perfect light blue), I have to discard more than half of their suggestions right off the bat, because what little green I see there turns me off immediately. I think the best we can do with asking for suggestions is narrowing down a list of possibilities, and then sampling the ones that strike us as possibilities.

+1. Not fond of green-leaning blues either.

What would you consider as "light" blue? Something more towards the cyan colour or something unsaturated?

What is your usual pen+paper combo?

What are the blues that you have and like and come close to your ideal blue?

[dennis_f]

+1. Not fond of green-leaning blues either.

What would you consider as "light" blue? Something more towards the cyan colour or something unsaturated?

What is your usual pen+paper combo?

What are the blues that you have and like and come close to your ideal blue?

 

 

Jarod,

 

thanks a milion for your response, but I was just using my case of the hunt for a perfect light blue as an example. I'm good for now -- I have about 20 samples to try out -- and I wouldn't want to change the primary subject of this thread.

[amberleadavis]

The numbers refer to my ink a day list that I did four years ago. The link is in the signature.

 

Faber Castell Moss Green (#300)

Noodler's GI Green (#66)

KWZI Iron Gall Green - any of the three (See #112-123 for several KWZI inks)

OH MY also check out PR Avacado (yes it is misspelled) (#182)

 

And I also like some of the others mentioned above:

 

Blackstone Daintree Green (#36)

Iroshizuku Shin Ryoku (#98)

Levenger Gemstone (#101)

Pelikan Edelstein Aventurine (#98)

KWZI Pine (#164)

 

Noodler's Green Marine (#178)